My works allude to natural phenomena, in a raw state, devoid of the limiting constrictions of literal representation. Nature is there, as a landscape, a view looking up in the air, or plunging down underwater. Imagery kept on the edge of recognition, so the final association is created in the mind.

Contrasts of matter, color, light, are created to provoke emotional responses. In the large paintings the atmospheric composition is built by raised brushstrokes shattered and reassembled to reveal an underlying struggle. In the smaller works paper is cast tumultuously as a counterpoint to its inherent frailness.

References to the history of painting are multiple and mixed: Venetian impasto and glazing, Luminist light, Abstract Expressionist texture, Baroque perspective.

It is important to avoid mannerism, metabolize the suggestions and integrate them with empirical visual stimuli.

Dissecting responses to everyday experiences into light, color, matter. There is no intent to escape reality, but to create a visual experience that communicates directly with our psyche; open to be reinterpreted continuously through our own evolution and the changing times.

Ruggero Vanni’s work cannot be labeled under the name of any school or style, and yet bears the distinctive marks of artists and artistic schools throughout history. Major influences come from the Venetian School of the Late Renaissance (Tintoretto, Veronese) and Late Baroque (Tiepolo, Piazzetta), as well as from the Luminist artists of the Hudson River School (Church, Bierstadt).

Vanni’s work is figurative, in the sense that it depicts a three-dimensional space, but it is also non-representational, avoiding any form that could be clearly recognizable.

His paintings are characterized by a definite contrast between light and darkness. In the light to mid tone areas there is a strong emphasis on the interplay of colors. In the darker areas several layers of glazing (transparent colors diluted in varnishes) help create the impression of depth. In most of his work depth is only an optical illusion creating the perception of a space that continuing beyond the canvas. This impression is contradicted by the treatment of the texture of the paint as to remind the viewer of the reality of the paintings’ surface (in some works from 2010-12 brush strokes physically grow out of the canvas becoming actual sculptural interventions).

Whether Vanni has produced works that greatly vary in size, his vision is fully represented by his largest paintings. In these works his interest for architecture and its relationship with art becomes more evident. Colors and matter produce illusory tridimensional spaces that are meant to create a transition between the reality of the space where the work is shown and the imaginary of the viewer’s mind.

Ruggero Vanni was born in Paris in 1958. He spent his forming years between Italy, France, and Greece. The artistic environment of his family and family’s friends was crucial in his artistic development.

Vanni studied painting from 1973 to 1978 at the Istituto d’Arte in Rome, Italy, under the guidance of Italian artist Michelangelo Conte, with an emphasis on fresco and artwork conceived as a part of the architectural context.

The influence of the long summers in Greece spent free diving can be seen throughout his work, where the three dimensional space is often perceived as being viewed from a suspended point of view.

In 1979 he moved to New York to study art at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1982. While at Cooper Union, the courses of Erwin Rubin, a former student of Josef Albers, was essential in defining Vanni’s interest for colors as the founding elements of his work.

After finishing his studies, Vanni settled in New York City, where he has his studio. He also spends a period of the year working in Italy and Greece. His work has been exhibited in Italy and the United States and is included in public collections of museums and institutions.